Communication

Communication is all about getting the point across effectively and understandably. What makes communication effective and understandable? It’s clear, concise, and moves toward a result.

Communication is as much about listening as it is speaking. If you can’t ever hear the other person talking and genuinely process what they’re telling you, nobody is making any progress.

Communication comes in different shapes and sizes: a hallway chat, a presentation, a meeting, an email, a text, a book, and so on.

Both in verbal and written communication, you should hear yourself speak. Can you actually hear and understand what you’re saying as you’re saying it, or are you just going on and on? If the latter, the person listening to you will probably think the same thing.

Good communication is communication that your target audience understands via the medium you chose. Whether it’s a text, email, or actually speaking out loud, if you can get the point across effectively, you did good.

Know your audience

Knowing your audience is vital to any sort of communication. Especially in the engineering sense, does your audience literally understand what you’re saying? Or are they missing the prerequisite knowledge to understand?

Another aspect is professionalism and formality. A bit of good old fashioned professionalism doesn’t hurt, and is totally necessary if you’re working with customers, clients or stakeholders. Formality also: if you’re working with someone superior to you, you can show them some respect. But if they’re informal with you, you can be with them too. Meet them where they’re at and both parties will hear each other a little better.

Cut to the chase

This is something I’ve worked on in my communication for years. I always feel like there is always more to say, and anything left unsaid is a loss. But this creates one-sided conversation where it’s me speaking at somebody, not with them.

Less is more, and silence is okay. People process very differently, both in style and in speed. If you’re neck deep into an explanation and you’re getting blank stares, slow down. See if you can boil your explanation down to just a few key ideas, and then if your audience wants more details, they will ask for it.

It’s fine to be silent for a few seconds too. This gives more time for you to think about what you’re going to say, and for your audience to process what you’re saying.

Emails

One example of communication we see abundantly in our lives is, of course, email. (Also texts, but people never put as much stock into those.)

People often freak out about writing emails or put way too much stock into them (or both). I definitely still do this sometimes. The key is to limit how much you’re looking at that email draft. There will always be something more you can fix or change. And once you send the email off, you’ll notice something that was maybe slightly wrong anyways. So there’s no need to deliberate.

Give yourself 3 attempts: One to write the email just by “winging it.” Next, you should review it for any structural or grammar issues. Finally, review it one more time to see if there’s anything you could remove to be more concise and clear. Maybe review it for grammar issues one last time after that. And then convince yourself that it’s good before you drain more time tweaking it into oblivion.

Fundamentally, emails are sent back and forth because someone needs something. They need you to do something for them. They need to do something for you. They need your attention. Whatever it is, both parties want to get down to business.

If you send over four emails back and forth, it’s probably time to refocus because something is getting lost. Change the subject line. Start a new thread. Schedule a call or a meeting in person. Or even send them a text or Teams message. Either way, don’t make a giant thread that keeps on growing with more people.

Again, know your audience. If it’s a CEO, department head, or someone who you respect, maybe you can spend a bit more time editing. Your email should be more formal as well. If it’s a coworker, you can be less formal because they probably just want you to cut to the chase. I think it’s also a bit silly if you’re super formal over email but then casual in person. Emails should genuinely reflect you and what you’re trying to communicate.